Ogilvie in the cockpit of the Nile Seaplane during the Nile expedition. Starting off from Alexandria on January 3, 1914, McClean flew the S.80 via Rosetta to Cairo, where he was joined by Ogilvie, who accompanied him up the Nile to Khartoum, where the S.80 arrived on March 23. During the journey there had been 13 engine breakdowns and three “bad landings”.

Aerial explorers of the Nile - from left to right: Frank McClean, mechanic Gus Smith and Alec Ogilvie with the Short S.80 Nile Seaplane at Merowe in Sudan, about 210 miles (330km) north of Khartoum, on February 25, 1914. Ogilvie had flown in the 67ft (20.4m)-span S.80 back in the UK after its first flight on October 2, 1913.